Insider shoots down Tom Brady signing contract to retire with Patriots
Fans may want to pump the brakes regarding Tom Brady potentially signing a one-day contract so that he can officially retire with the New England Patriots.
“A couple of weeks ago I asked — as it was being passed around — speculation, ‘Will Brady come back to the Patriots?'” NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran explained during an appearance on the WEEI “Jones & Mego” program, as shared by Alex Reimer of Audacy. “I said, ‘That wouldn’t happen, right?’ I was told via text, that would not happen. He would never go back to the Patriots. Now, would he come back and sign a one-day contract? I would imagine the same thing holds true.”
Reimer added that Curran “has deep ties to the Brady camp.”
Rumors about Brady possibly returning to the Patriots as a free agent popped up this past fall. He announced his “for good” retirement on Wednesday, and multiple in-the-know individuals have since said the signal-caller was always either going to spend another season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or ride off into the sunset.
Curran spoke after Patriots owner Robert Kraft insisted during an appearance on CNN that he’d sign Brady to a one-day contract “tomorrow” for the legendary quarterback to retire with the team that was his NFL home from the 2000 draft through the 2019 campaign. However, Curran noted that the Patriots’ unwillingness to lock Brady down on a long-term deal that would’ve run well past 2019 likely still bothers the 45-year-old.
“The Patriots had multiple years in which Brady all but crawled on his hands and knees to the door of Robert Kraft and said, ‘Please, sign me. I don’t want to move from this house in Chestnut Hill. I don’t want to uproot my family. I want to finish here as a New England Patriot,'” Curran continued. Kraft did not oblige, and Brady signed with the Buccaneers in March 2020 and then guided that club to a Super Bowl LV victory which earned him a seventh and final championship ring.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio pointed out Thursday that Brady may not officially retire before June, at the earliest, due to salary-cap issues. Theoretically, that reality could give Kraft additional time to somehow right a perceived wrong and convince Brady to return for one final grand farewell the greatest player in franchise history deserves.
